Scholz pledges to supply Ukraine with 17 additional air defense systems

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz promised on Wednesday to supply Ukraine with 17 additional IRIS-T anti-aircraft missile systems, four of which will be delivered this year.

"Scholz promised Ukraine additional IRIS-T air defense systems. Eight IRIS-T SLM and nine IRIS-T SLS systems have been ordered for Ukraine," NTV reported at the German army base in Todendorf in Schleswig-Holstein.

The TV channel noted that two systems of each type will be delivered to Ukraine in 2024, and the rest - from 2025.

It is noteworthy that the German Chancellor had officially expressed his support last March for the European Union initiative aimed at benefiting from the proceeds of frozen Russian assets to provide military assistance to Ukraine.

The EU had planned to spend the windfall from frozen Russian assets on the reconstruction of Ukraine , but recently there has been talk in Brussels that the frozen funds could be used to provide military aid to Ukraine, given the difficult situation “on the battlefield” and Kiev’s shortage of weapons and ammunition.

The German Chancellor has previously indicated that Germany will have to supply Ukraine with weapons and ammunition for a long time , stressing that "the war will not be short."

Ukraine has received  massive financial and military aid from Western countries , primarily the United States and other European countries, since the start of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

Western countries, through the material, military and political support they provide to Kiev, seek to obstruct the goals of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine. However, Moscow has confirmed on more than one occasion that military operations in Donbass will not stop until all tasks assigned to it are achieved.